2019 Mercers Massacre Reenactment: The Battle of the Great Cacapon
Relive history at the Mercers Massacre Reenactment: The Battle of the Great Cacapon on April 20, 2019 at Fort Edward in Capon Bridge, West Virginia. The event is sponsored by the Virginia Regiment Captain George Mercer Co reenactor group.
Fort Edward – Mercer Co of VA Regiment
Free Admission – Public Welcome
Donations to the Fort Edward Foundation gladly accepted.
Camping: Available and all participants are invited to the Colonial Feast immediately after the Battle reenactment.
Location
Fort Edward
350 Cold Spring Road
Capon Bridge, WV 26047
For More Information
Call 703-328-2642; Email tonyelar@embarqmail.com
About the Virginia Regiment Captain George Mercer Co
The Virginia Regiment was originally formed in 1755 and reformed in 1756 as part of Colonel George Washington’s Virginia First Regiment garrisoned out of Fort Loudoun Winchester Virginia. The Virginia Regiment Captain George Mercer Co reenactors are a group of avid Living Historians dedicated to memorializing and reenacting Colonel George Washington’s Virginia Regiment known as the “Virginia Blues”. The regiment manned forts and outposts in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina during the French and Indian War. We invite those with similar interests to join our group.
About The Battle of Great Cacapon
One of the most important military engagements of the War in Virginia took place in the vicinity of Ft. Edwards on April 18, 1756. In what has come to be called either the “Battle of Great Cacapon River” or “Mercer’s Massacre”, Capt. John Fenton Mercer, Ensign Thomas Carter and fifteen soldiers of a larger group were ambushed and killed when they left the safety of the fort to search for a band of Indians roaming in the area. This was the most fearful incident to occur near Winchester. It sent chills through the Governor and Burgesses in Williamsburg and impressed upon them the vulnerability of the frontier and the need for a defensive line of frontier forts.[su_accordion][su_spoiler title=”Read More”]
In the first half of the French and Indian War, Edwards’s Fort was manned and maintained by the Virginia Regiment at Col. Washington’s orders. In later years after the war as bridges began to be built on important highways, the road was moved to a location with high bluffs along the bank. When the Northwest Turnpike was completed in the 1830s, Edwards’s home was no longer the center of town; it was then located well north of the highway. As Joseph Edwards’s heirs divided his lands and the town began to develop, the no-longer-necessary wooden stockade rotted away. Eventually all traces of Edwards’s house and of the stockade fort disappeared.[/su_spoiler][/su_accordion]
The Fort Today
Little is known about the Fort at Joseph Edwards. Its location has been verified by preliminary archaeological excavations, but much remains to be discovered. In May of 1756 after Mercer’s Massacre, the House of Burgesses of the Colony of Virginia, at the urging of Col. Washington, ordered a chain of forts to be built from Henry Enoch’s at the Forks of Capon south to Halifax County. Several of these forts were in Hampshire County, but only the site of Edwards’s Fort is definitely located and available for investigation today.
Mark your calendar today so you don’t miss the next Mercers Massacre Reenactment: The Battle of the Great Cacapon in April at Fort Edward in Capon Bridge, West Virginia.
Tags: Mercers Massacre Reenactment, Battle of the Great Cacapon Reenactment, French & Indian War Reenacrment